AN EARLY MEANING OF ‘OUT BACK’
EVIDENCE FROM THE RIVERINA REGION OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Ian Beissel
‘Outback’ is a widely-used Australian word describing and denoting remote and sparselypopulated parts of inland Australia (often used in a generic and romanticised sense). In early
citations the word ‘outback’ is rendered as the phrase ‘out back’. The Australian National
Dictionary gives definitions for ‘outback’ adverb, adjective, and noun; the attributed meanings
essentially correspond to the modern sense of the word, pertaining to ‘sparsely inhabited country
which is remote from a major centre of population’ or ‘characteristic of remote parts of the
country’.
The purpose of this article is to articulate an older meaning of the phrase ‘out back’ (from
which the word ‘outback’ derived). It is proposed that during the mid- to late-nineteenth century
‘out back’ referred specifically to land away or distant from the frontages of permanent
watercourses. Its usage, as exemplified in this article, can be associated with the historical
pattern of European settlement on the saltbush plains of New South Wales. The case for an
earlier meaning of the phrase ‘out back’ relies on the evidence of a batch of quotations, most of
which antedate the citations published in the Australian National Dictionary. The quotations are
extracted from passages relating to the western Riverina region of New South Wales, obtained
from newspapers, journals, and government publications (the product of historical research
undertaken by the Hay Historical Society).
The earliest of the passages is from the New South Wales Government Gazette of 27
September 1848 (No. 109). The following description of the ‘Geramy’ pastoral run, estimated to
have an area of 22,400 acres, was written by the prospective lessees, James and William Tyson.
The description is from a list of ‘Claims to Leases of Crown Land Beyond the Settled Districts’ for
the Lachlan squatting district:
The land occupied by us is barren in the extreme, out a short distance from the
river neither is there any water out back. The water at the hut is called Gerarmy or
Wanthirm by the Blacks. We have the Commissioner’s authority to claim 7 miles
frontage to the Lachlan River; and we are bounded on the east or upper side by a
line running nearly north and south, coming on the river at the established old hut
or waterhole, boundary about 3 miles east of our hut; we are bounded on the lower
or west by a line running nearly north and south, which divides us from the land
occupied by a Mr. Tooth, and comes in on the river at a plain 4 miles below our hut,
at the lower end of the marsh of the Lachlan; north by the river; and south by the
plains.
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The first sentence, where the phrase ‘out back’ appears, probably suffers from a misplaced
comma. It could perhaps be paraphrased as: ‘Apart from the river frontage the land we occupy is
extremely barren and waterless.’ In any case ‘out back’ in this sentence evidently refers to the dry
plains beyond the river frontage. The Tyson brothers use the phrase to describe a specific part of
their run. In 1848 there is no doubt that the whole of the ‘Geramy’ run could have been described
as ‘sparsely inhabited country remote from a major centre of population’. The township of Oxley
was established much later (in the mid-1860s) on the north bank of the Lachlan River, opposite
the north-east corner of ‘Geramy’ run.
Pastoral runs began to be taken up in the Riverina region of New South Wales during the
late 1830s and 1840s. Stockholders began edging along the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Billabong,
and Murray systems, where they occupied the valuable river frontages. The pastoral runs
selected by the squatters were typically of an elongated shape, extending back from the river into
the dry back-blocks where stock could be grazed during wet winters. The vegetation on the land
beyond the river corridors was dominated by saltbush species that could provide fodder for stock,
even during drought years. The limiting factor for the exploitation of this resource was the
availability of water.
By the time of the gold discoveries of the early 1850s the whole of the Riverina riverfrontages had been taken up and their occupation consolidated. The expanding population on the
Victorian diggings provided a growing market for stock to be slaughtered. The Riverina was the
prime fattening country closest to the market and became a sort of holding centre, from where the
Victorian market could be supplied as required. Until the early 1860s cattle were the predominant
stock grazed on the undeveloped Riverina stations. Cattle could feed further from water and so
utilised more land; they were allowed to wander freely over the runs until it was time for the yearly
or half-yearly muster.
With rising wool prices during the late 1850s the squatters on the Riverina pastoral
holdings began to shift from cattle to sheep. This process required increased capital investment
and more intensive management techniques. Wire-fencing began to replace post-and-rail in the
early 1860s, which facilitated the extensive subdivision of pastoral runs into paddocks. There was
a parallel increase in the development of watering facilities, such as wells and constructed waterstorages, to allow for the enclosure of stock within large paddocks. These changes caused a
phasing out of the shepherd on the inland stations, to be replaced by the boundary rider. With the
sheep thus enclosed, a man on a horse was a cheaper alternative to the shepherd, able to
effectively manage larger flocks than his predecessor. These developments led to the formation
of new stations away from permanent watercourses (known as ‘back stations’), and also enabled
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squatters on river-fronted stations to graze stock at the back of their runs on a long-term basis.
The passage below is extracted from a report on the results of heavy rainfall in the districts
surrounding Hay; it was written by the Hay correspondent to the Pastoral Times newspaper
(printed in Deniliquin) and published on 22 December 1866. It begins:
With respect to the great fall of rain which we had last Sunday week, we have
received accounts confirming the truth of our statements of last week. At Groongal
on the frontage two inches fell, but out back four and a-half inches were registered.
‘Groongal’, located between Narrandera and Hay, had been taken up by 1839 and was one of the
earliest of the lower Murrumbidgee runs. In 1866 the lease was held by the Learmonth brothers.
This passage plainly differentiates between the rainfall that had occurred on the river frontage at
‘Groongal’ and that which had fallen ‘out back’.
The ‘Boolegal’ run on the lower Lachlan River, opposite the present township of Booligal,
was taken up by the Tom brothers in the mid to late 1840s. In the 1860s this extensive run was
subdivided, with stations such as ‘Alma’, ‘Tom’s Lake’, and ‘Culpataro’ being formed from the lowlying country at the back of the run. The following report was written by the ‘Lachlan’
correspondent to the Pastoral Times, published on 13 February 1869. The correspondent was
writing from Booligal township:
On Thursday, the 29th ult., we were visited by the hurricane which passed over
Victoria with such disastrous results. Such a dust storm has never been known on
this river. At Alma, sixteen miles out back, a heavy fall of enormous hailstones was
experienced during the thunderstorms which succeeded. I have not heard of any
harm being done, or life lost.
Here again a distinction is made between events at different geographical locations, specifically
between the dust-storm experienced on the river at Booligal and the hail- storm sixteen miles ‘out
back’ at ‘Alma’ station.
The following sentence is from a report written by the ‘Hay’ correspondent to the Town and
Country Journal, published on 9 March 1878. Here the phrase ‘out back’ describes the pastoral
land distant from the river where wells were the only secure facilities for the provision of water:
It is gratifying to report that this district has been favoured with a good downpour of
rain, but still in some parts not in sufficient quantity to be of any value—as out back
on some stations the wells are again at work to water stock.
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In its nineteenth century usage ‘out back’ has an obvious affinity with the word ‘back’ as
used in the phrase ‘at the back of’, which, in its earliest meaning, the Australian National
Dictionary defines as ‘the part of a station most distant from the homestead or from permanent
water’. This meaning can be demonstrated in the following quotation, published in the Pastoral
Times on 12 October 1867 (re-printed from the Echuca Riverine Herald):
… we are informed that Mr. Currie, of Karimba station, has been driven from his
homestead by the flood, and has had to retreat with the whole of his establishment
to some sandhills at the back of his station.
Another related phrase is ‘back block(s)’, indicating ‘land behind that with a water frontage; land
on which there is no permanent watercourse’. The following passage was published in the
Pastoral Times on 26 May 1859, on the subject of efforts by residents of Lang’s Crossing-place
(later to become the township of Hay) to sink a well on the Old Man Plain, the stretch of country
between the Murrumbidgee River and the Billabong Creek:
Some at Lang’s Crossing-Place, on the Murrumbidgee, have subscribed upwards
of one hundred pounds towards sinking a well on the centre of the much-dreaded
Old Man Plain. The distance across this extensive plain is about fifty miles, and
several months in the year there is not a drop of water to be had. Many lives have
been lost travelling over these plains, from time to time, and those who are
combining to carry out the project of supplying these arid wastes are to be
commended. People are beginning to appreciate these ‘back blocks,’ as they are
termed, if they succeed, as no doubt they will, in obtaining water by sinking, a very
large amount of stock can be depastured on lands now useless solitudes.
The usage of ‘back’ in its various forms—‘back blocks’, ‘back run, ‘back station’, ‘at the
back of’ and ‘out back’—to describe or denote land that is apart from the river-frontage seems
logical and self-evident in a linguistic sense. In addition there is little doubt that the psychological
focus of squatters who leased river-fronted runs was strongly directed towards the river. The
length of frontage was an important factor in the value of the pastoral lease and the permanent
stream was the prime source of water for the station, for both stock and humans. The river-bank
and its environs was almost invariably selected as the most comfortable and practical location for
the homestead and many of the subsidiary station-buildings. The river was often associated with
commercial and personal contact with the outside world: roads and tracks often ran parallel to the
river and, when water-levels were high, steamers were the preferred means of delivering supplies
and transporting wool to market (for example, on the Murrumbidgee from the late 1850s
onwards). A similar psychological focus could be attributed to the residents of townships located
along the river corridors of inland Australia.
The following quotations provide further illustrations of the usage of ‘out back’ in describing
land away from the river frontages. Bathurst burr (Xanthium spinosum) was accidentally
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introduced into Australia in the early nineteenth century from South America. The pervasive weed
gradually spread along the stock-routes and river corridors of inland Australia. The report below,
regarding Bathurst burr, was written by the ‘Hay’ correspondent to the Pastoral Times newspaper
and published on 10 March 1866:
Too much attention cannot be drawn to this growing pest. It is as yet confined to
the roads and rivers, but the crop is most extraordinarily prolific this season. It may
appear to some paltry, and that it never can overspread the country. The frontages
are literally stocked, and it will take but a few years to find its way out back.
The next passage, describing the Murrumbidgee River flooding its banks during October 1867,
was written by the Hay correspondent to the Pastoral Times (published on 26 October 1867):
The river has been higher here than since the township was formed. There is still a
great swamp in front of Murphy’s Restaurant, which indeed is surrounded. The
water is gone out back through the Mark Tree Scrub, and is said to be swimmable
in places. No one here remembers such a volume of water, and its extending so far
out on the plains.
The earliest citation for ‘outback’ in the Australian National Dictionary is from the
Wagga Wagga Advertiser (17 April 1869):
Grass will be abundant out back, and those pleasant and welcome visitors the
travelling sheep will have comfortable quarters all the way down the river.
This quotation is used to illustrate the meaning ‘Out in or to country which is remote from a major
centre of population’. However, the alternate meaning explored in this article—of land beyond the
river frontage—cannot be precluded and could also be applied to the phrase ‘out back’ within this
passage. This applies also to other early citations for ‘outback’ in the Australian National
Dictionary.
The following two passages provide examples of the usage of the phrase ‘out back’ in the
twentieth century, in both cases conforming to the earlier meaning of land beyond or distant from
the river frontages. In each instance the writers have recorded personal recollections of their early
lives spent at Hay and surrounding districts during the 1870s.
In April 1872 the Wesleyan minister, Rev. William Weston, arrived at Hay to take charge of
the newly-created circuit there. Rev. Weston was aged thirty-one and had previously ministered
in Victoria. He remained at Hay until March 1875. He subsequently served at various circuits
throughout New South Wales and retired from active ministry in 1906. The Hay Methodist Church
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celebrated its Golden Jubilee in1922; at the age of eighty-one years Rev. Weston travelled to Hay
to take part in the celebrations. As part of his contribution to the occasion Rev. Weston wrote an
article, ‘Early Methodism in Hay’, which was published on 25 July 1922 in the local newspaper,
the Riverine Grazier. The extract below concerns the minister’s regular visits on horseback to
stations and townships in the district during his tenure at Hay:
The distance round was 300 miles, but during the shearing season it was extended
to twice that distance, the whole time being spent in country work, there being such
numbers of men at all the woolsheds glad of a service. Thus the circle was
extended sometimes as far as Balranald, at other times beyond Booligal to Tom’s
Lake and the stations adjacent; then in the trip up the Murrumbidgee River, turning
to the north and going to Gunbar and the region around. Most of the large holdings
on the river had extra woolsheds some distance out back; these would be visited
and services held.
In the winter of 1876 the seventeen year-old Thomas Booth and two companions, seeking
work, made their way on foot from central Victoria to ‘Corrong’ station on the lower Lachlan River.
Booth and his friends were engaged as rouseabouts during the shearing at ‘Corrong’ woolshed.
After ‘cut-out’ Booth continued working at ‘Corrong’ as a station-hand. In November 1876 the
squatter Peter Tyson made Tom Booth a proposition:
After Tyson had handed me my cheque he said ‘I want you to go out back whimdriving at Sebastopol Well’. Immediately my head was filled with thoughts of the
Whim Holes near Ballarat where I got two shillings a week and found, but I decided
to go. After a couple of days rest I was ready for the journey and I set off into the
wilderness, leaving behind what little civilisation there was at Corrong homestead.
Booth remained at ‘Corrong’ until June 1877 when he re-located to Hay. In February 1878 he
returned home to Victoria. He later married and raised a family. Booth was a farmer for most of
his life; he ended up in the Werribee district where he died in 1943, aged about 84 years. Before
he died Tom Booth wrote an account of his life, from which the above extract comes. He recorded
his story in an exercise book that extended to 146 pages and the book was discovered by family
members following the death of one of Booth’s grand-daughters in 1996.
In Australian English William Ramson discusses the Australian use of particularisers such
as ‘back’, ‘head’ and ‘out’:
Out- had a more general application in British English, and words like outsettler
and outsettlement are recorded from the eighteenth century. Both of these were in
use in Australia shortly after 1800, and words like out-squatter, which had a fairly
short life, and out-station were presumably modelled on them. The use of back-, as
in back-blocks, back station, and, further out still, outback, seems to replace out-, in
its more general application, in the latter part of the century.
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Ramson seems to suggest here that the combination of two particularisers in the case of ‘out
back’ has a sort of magnifying effect, leading to a meaning with associations of ‘remote parts of
the country’. This may apply to the meaning of ‘outback’ as it was used in the late nineteenth
century during the period of romanticisation of Australian English epitomised by the writers at the
Bulletin. However, to residents of the stations and townships of Riverina in the mid- to latenineteenth century, the phrase ‘out back’ was probably just an elliptical construction, shortening
phrases such as ‘out to the back of the run’ or ‘out in the back blocks’.
References
Thomas Booth, ‘The Reminiscences of Tom Booth at Corrong Station and Elsewhere in the Hay
District’, c. 1942; Hay Historical Society Website Newsletter, February 2006, No. IV (available
online: http://users.tpg.com.au/hayhist/NewsletterFour.html).
Noel G. Butlin, Investment in Australian Economic Development, 1861-1900, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge,1964.
Gordon L. Buxton, The Riverina 1861-1891: An Australian Regional Study, Melbourne University
Press, Melbourne, 1967.
Norman M.G. Crossley, Beyond the Lachlan: A History of Tom’s Lake and the Crossley Family,
N. Crossley, Cobar, 2005.
Harold M. Mackenzie, Mackenzie's Riverina: A Tour of the Hay District Pastoral Holdings of the
1890s, Hay Historical Society, Hay, 2002.
William S. Ramson, Australian English: An Historical Study of the Vocabulary 1788- 1898,
Australian National University Press, Canberra,1966.
William S. Ramson (ed.), The Australian National Dictionary: A Dictionary of Australianisms on
Historical Principles, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1988.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
The following illustrations are adapted from station maps published in Mackenzie’s Riverina,
showing stations boundaries in 1910.
This image shows the location of ‘Geramy’ station, near the junction of the Lachlan and
Murrumbidgee rivers.
This image shows the location of ‘Alma’ and ‘Corrong’ stations, near Booligal; also the locations
of Corrong homestead and the Sebastopol Well on ‘Corrong’ station.
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This image shows the location of ‘Groongal’ station, on the Murrumbidgee River between
Narrandera and Hay.
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